Pirate Booty
by Abicion
Summary: This is still more dignified than the actual plot to Other M.
1. Chapter 1

It had been almost a week since the larva entered her cocoon. Some of the Space Pirates suggested they should call her the "Brain Stem" in her current state, given what she would become once she fully matured.

The giant pod was bloated with a concoction of minerals and insect proteins. Mucus oozed down its walls. Slimy, worm-like tubing drained any stagnant material from cocoon and constantly pumped in fresh nutrients. An equally messy network of pins and wires was attached to the outside of the pod, listening for a faint but steady heartbeat and monitoring the oxygen levels in the hot amniotic soup.

Inside the cell, billions of natural catalysts invaded the human woman's DNA and evolved her into something closer to Space Pirate biology, while tiny surges of bioelectricity pulsed through her mind and slowly infused her with the will of Mother Brain. They had been saving a backup of Mother Brain since the destruction of Zebes. They never expected they would end up using it on the bounty hunter responsible for destroying the queen's previous body.

The Federation was foolish enough to think they could control Metroids by building their own artificial Mother Brain in the form of a human android. This was the Pirates' way of turning the same basic idea against them. In true survival of the fittest, they were going to swarm the Federation base so the two rival queens could fight to the death. Between a cheap puppet controlled by a counterfeit Mother Brain and an enhanced human-Space Pirate hybrid with the intellect of the real Mother Brain, there was no doubt who would be victorious.

It was fitting that she was the one chosen to serve as the queen larva. She had been so concerned over one infant Metroid, and now all Metroids would be her children. Maybe that was why Mother Brain's AI insisted they use their greatest enemy for her new body.

Securing the larva had gone surprisingly well. Lord Ridley was in charge of the mission. For reasons that still remain unexplained, the bounty hunter completely froze in place and lost all ability to fight the moment she made eye contact with him. They weren't exactly sure why she had such a paralyzing reaction after she had managed to defeat him so many times in the past, but they didn't let this slow them down. After she was easily subdued, they brought her to the skinning lab.

They began by dissecting her red exoskeleton. The armor came off in neatly divided segments, but the Pirates weren't sure what to make of its design or function. It was filled with remnants of Chozo technology that only seemed to work with the bounty hunter's personal biometrics. The extensive mutations that now spiraled through her genetic code meant the equipment had been rendered useless to her. If nothing else, it would fetch a decent price on the intergalactic black market.

The real treasure was the squishy blue life form they found inside of the shell.

There had been some debate over how to deal with the specimen's first layer of skin. No one on the science team could decide if it was necessary for her survival, or if it was even a natural part of her biology. Eventually they agreed the material was too closely fixed to her body to be ordinary human clothing. They could only theorize it was a highly-evolved external immune system, or maybe it was fabricated from special polymers meant to shield her from the vacuum of space. But it was no matter. As soon as surgery was over, she was placed in a temporary chrysalis for safekeeping. Then she was shipped to her current home, the queen's nursery deep in Space Pirate territory. Her flimsy synthetics and her delicate human genome were no match for the ample amounts of royal jelly that now soaked through her pores.

Something shifted inside of the pod. They wondered if the larva was trying to resist her metamorphosis again, but a basic neural scan ruled out that possibility. It was just the queen moving in her sleep. She was weak now, but she would be ready to spawn within a few more days. Then the Federation would fall and Mother Brain would reign supreme.

_Soon._


	2. Xeno-chan's Revenge

The reign of the Federation's false queen came to a ghastly end. Melissa Bergman was sprawled across the lab floor like a broken doll. Her severed head was held as a trophy in Mother Brain's claws. A look of terror was frozen on her robotic face and sparks were still shooting out of the twisted stump of her neck. Mother Brain glanced coldly into the android's eyes, then crushed the metal skull in her claws and tossed it aside.

By human definition, Mother Brain was naked. The Zero Suit had all but completely dissolved during her metamorphosis and the few scraps that survived had turned greenish brown. In its place was an exoskeleton molted from her original flesh. The hard shell hugged her hourglass figure like a chitin corset. It gave the appearance of a crude and slimy green imitation of the Zero Suit.

Mother Brain's left arm retained its human form, but her right arm had permanently mutated into a Space Pirate pincher. She had Samus Aran's face, but now her skin was pale emerald, a pair of mandibles extended from the sides of her mouth, and her forehead was covered with pulsating veins. Across her scalp, hidden underneath her long blonde hair, was a dense network of similar veins. The bounty hunter's tiny human cortex was a tight fit for the consciousness of Mother Brain, but completing the assimilation had been a simple matter of growing a few extra neurons.

Despite the drastic changes her body had undergone, Mother Brain still shared Samus's basic physical traits. Most of her features were only vestiges of human anatomy and were useless to her new internal organs, but they still functioned as a distraction to feeble-minded enemies. The finished product was a striking combination of human feminine beauty and insectoid horror.

Space Pirates were swarming over the Federation ship like locusts, slaughtering everyone on board and setting fire to the entire Science division. Only one of the marines—MALKOVICH, according to his nameplate—was still alive. He tried to attack Mother Brain from behind, but she sensed his presence and swiftly impaled him with her segmented tail. The appendage extended several feet from what used to be her human spine, ending with a barbed tip shaped like a hook. As the marine struggled to pull the stinger out of his gut, Mother Brain considered her choices. She could either give him a dose of the corrosive venom her body now naturally produced and end his suffering in seconds, or she could impregnate him with Space Pirate larvae and simply wait for her precious maggot children to eat him alive from the inside out.

The queen sighed seductively as her tail quivered. She had decided the marine's fate.

Acid pumped into the man's veins and melted his insides into a thick soup. His cries of agony stopped abruptly as blood filled his helmet. Mother Brain retracted her stinger and let the marine's husk collapse to the ground. She would take the meal for herself.

Ridley flew from out of the fire and landed by her side. She stroked the end of his snout with her human hand to put him at ease. He was her most faithful pet.

Mother Brain continued to oversee the carnage in silence. Once everything relating to the Federation's experiments in creating their own artificial Mother Brain had been destroyed, she clicked the mandibles on her cheeks and gave off a low vocal signal to her drones. The Space Pirates assembled around her to receive their next command.


End file.
